News analysis

The Norway attacks

Manifesto of a murderer

EVER since Anders Behring Breivik fired the opening volley of the shooting spree that took the lives of at least 85 youngsters on the small Norwegian island of Utøya on Friday, every few hours has brought some new shock.

The latest revelation is that the 32-year-old Norwegian appears to have spent nine years planning the massacre. This, at least, is the claim in an extraordinary 1,500-page document Mr Breivik published on the internet a few hours before the first part of his two-pronged attack—the bombing of a government complex in Oslo.

Mr Breivik's manifesto exposes his preparations as meticulous and obsessive. According to his own testimony he spent several years earning money to finance the attacks. He moved into his mother's apartment to save money on rent and gradually distanced himself from friends and relatives in order to avoid suspicion.

During this time he read and contributed to far-right and Islamophobic websites, and spent many hours learning how to build a bomb.

He stage-managed his own image, taking dozens of self-portraits in which he appears in a variety of uniforms—police, paramilitary and traditional Norwegian costume—and publishing them online. His preparations for these photos included visits to tanning salons and beauty parlours.

The final phase involved leasing an isolated farmhouse. This gave him solitude, an excuse for buying the huge amount of fertiliser he needed for the bomb, and a barn big enough to store it.

Mr Breivik went to elaborate lengths to conceal his purpose. People who wanted to visit were told he was busy with the summer harvest, though he knew nothing of farming. He was apparently content to let a rumour circulate that he had dropped out of circulation in shame over a homosexual affair.

Mr Breivik's manifesto—“2083. A European Declaration of Independence”—also provides some insight into his motivations. His ideology appears to be a form of reactionary Christian fundamentalism, fuelled by hatred of Islam, Marxism and non-whites.

Page after page detail his thoughts on politics and society. He rails against the European Union, the United Nations and other transnational organisations. Norwegian politicians are castigated: the right-wing Progress Party (to which he once belonged) is condemned as too tame and the ruling Labour Party comes in for particularly vicious attack.

Mr Breivik's hatred has stunned Norwegians. The country has a proud reputation as an international peace-broker, is home to the Nobel peace prize and has scant appetite for rightist radicalism. Even during its heyday under the Nazi occupation, Vidkun Quisling's fascist Nasjonal Samling Party mustered no more than 2.5% of the vote. In 2009's general election, the neo-Nazi party Vigrid won just 179 votes.

The only serious far-right violent incident in recent years was the murder, in 2001, of Benjamin Hermansen, the 15-year-old son of a Norwegian mother and Ghanaian father. Two members of BootBoys, a neo-Nazi group, were convicted of the killing.

Following the murder anti-racism rallies took place throughout Norway, with some 40,000 people joining a candlelit procession through Oslo's streets. This year, on the tenth anniversary of the murder, 5,000 people gathered for a vigil.

Far-right extremists have kept a low profile in recent years. Norway's intelligence services have warned of a potential threat, but the population and the media were more focused on the possibility of Islamist violence.

What far-right activity there was seems to have occurred online. And although these were monitored by intelligence agencies, Mr Breivik's determined attempts to conceal his plans appear to have ensured he stayed under the radar until it was too late.

...if you have the stomach for it......
I've finished reading it about an hour ago.....and it's a slog.

The guy is an obsessive (the maifesto is over 1500 pages) narcissistic (lengthy writings on steroids, fitness, diet, social standing amongst friends), sociopath (well apart from murdering 90 people in line with his personal ideology, read the stepmother comment) with delusions of grandeur..(not only The Justiciar Knight Commander for Knights Templar Europe...BUT...A Leader of the National and pan-European Patriotic Resistance Movement, no less)

He informs us that his favourite cologne is 'Egoiste' (unsurprisingly?)
He wouldn't be too upset if his stepmother (of whom he is quite fond) should be executed as a traitor for working in the Norwegian Immigration Dept.
His most treasured possession is his Breitling watch (I think I'll take mine off for now)
He takes steroids and details his fitness regime and diet
He is a fan of the Pope, Geert Wilders, Putin, and Radovan Karadzic.
He considers himself the most thoughtful, social, and well adjusted member of his social circle and includes critiques of friends and associates.

The manifesto is rather unstructured containing (among many other things)
A diary
Puns and humour
Detailed planning
Arms purchases
Bomb recipes
Cover stories
Childhood anecdotes
A personal and professional CV
Glowing assessments of his attributes and earning capacity.
Assessments of his personal sacrifices in pursuing his goal.

The beginning of the manifesto, stating the intellectual foundation of his beliefs, itself is detailed, relatively coherent, and obviously well researched (albeit from a singular perspective) and tries hard to emulate an academic or scholarly tract.....it fails though...its a simple polemic, nothing more...and waaaaay too long to be an interesting polemic.

The two glaring faults?
Well apart from the common mistake of most polemicists to cast an uncritical eye over writings and reference material that supports his own perspective he falls for the same mistake that was evident during the Cold War from both sides.
He considers there to be a (yes I hate to say it) conspiracy of Islamic Imperialism aided and abetted by a Marxist/Politically Correct/Liberal elite.
Just like there was no monolithic international communist conspiracy nor a western imperialist version...neither is the a Muslim conspiracy to enslave the west. Regardless of whether one feels there is too much or too little immigration, an organised conspiracy it is not.

Why the Western/Marxist/liberal/intellectual elite, whom he considers pursue a permissive, individualist, anti-traditional society at the expanse of conservative christian family values, would opt to aid and abet the ultra-conservative, pious, and intolerant Islamic empire he envisages...is never addressed.

There is no real insight into why he felt his actions on the 23rd would benefit his cause.

I suppose that is asking for too much introspection and compos menti than Breivik could muster

I suspect the relentless examination of his right-wing radicalism will play interference with the fact that you simply can't rationalize the view of a sickened mind. What makes matters more complex is that the two walk hand in hand.

Unfortunately for Mr. Breivik, what he doesn't realize is that this incident has only brought more people together in solidarity. I don't want to sound ideological, but really, the opposite of what he wanted has occurred, and now only more care will be taken to ensure multicultural tolerance.

It shows the Norwegian attacker in combat gear, but also a police uniform with "Knights Templar Europe" (KTE) insignes. His video includes "The Economist" with Eurabia frontcover, as a warning for the demise of Western Europe culture by Islam.

Common themes in the Norwegian attacker propoganda video:
(1) Europe has been invaded in the past by Islamic conquerors (Jihadist), and twice were defeated on the European mainland - Battle of Tours (732 AD) and Vienna (1683). Now Islamist are back for the 3rd time: not a soldiers, but by breeding children. Quote: "2005 It is now too late -demographically impossible - to stop the Islamic multiculturalism."

(2) Political correctness = "Cultural Marxism" = Multiculturalism. Left wing politicians allow Islamist to impose their culture onto Europe and allow the Islamic timebomb in Europe to continue. Lebanon is mentioned as an example where Moslims gradually took over a Christian community by demographics, over a period of 100 years.

(3) The "Knights Templar Europe" will rise and like the Crusaders a 1,000 years ago, will force out the Islamist from Europe. Spreading of Christianity by military means is put forward as the "end game" for Europe. The mono-culturalist societies of Japan, S Korea and Taiwan are heralded as examples, which Europe should follow.

In the attacker's own words: he has an academic degree and became self-made millionaire at the age of 24. He had himself baptised at age of 15 and would like to see the Protestant and Catholic Church re-unite based on (ultra)conservative doctrines.

If true, it would explain he had the resources and money, to buy automatic weapons + 6 tonnes of fertiliser for the Oslo bomb. It may also explain his morbid logic to use military force against children, to defeat the "multiculturalism" demographic timebomb.

I'm not a psychologist and don't know if this man is clinically insane. I'm afraid he and other KTE's are much more dangerous than that. This extreme right movement is not confined to Norway only.

A lot of people consider right-wing extremism in Norway fragmented & harmless. If this "Knights Templar" ideology across Europe is more widespread however, it is a lot more dangerous than a lone wolf with a gun in Norway.

Would be interesting to see Mr Geert Wilders response to all this, as his and Anders Behring Breivik ideology are very closely aligned.

With some carefully editing this could easily describe radical elements within the TEA party, Bachmann's supporters (Glen Beck enthusiasts, Palin-ites, etc.), along with the usual extremist fringe like militia groups, current and former KKK members and copy cat organizations, etc.:

He rails against the European Union, the United Nations and other transnational organisations. XXX politicians are castigated: the right-wing XXX Party (to which he once belonged) is condemned as too tame and the ruling (liberals, Democrats, Obama, whatever substitute here) comes in for particularly vicious attack.

According to document.no (a right-wing site which Breivik was an active member of) Breivik copied big parts of the Unabombers' manifesto, more or less only changing the world "leftist" with "cultural marxist". The manifesto is, as others have noted, a mess.

The beginning of "compendium" is simply a collection of stuff written by others, including scholars like Bat Ye'or, paleocon William S. Lind, as well as stuff collected off of a few blogs. Too much credit where none is due :)

This event has foreign agency DNA all over it. Norway was just invaded.

Why? Geopolitical value vis-à-vis Russia, the Arctic, its ports, of course oil, its continued independence from the EU and its multi-trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund. It was also punished for its overt humanitarian, material support of a more balanced Middle East viz Palestine.

Retail media is running a scripted cognitive infiltration program to generate and establish fear, prejudice, cultural decay and weakened or nullified self-governance as the country is incrementally absorbed into the GWOT program and a new strand of engineered ethno-religious “terror” is implanted and reinforced.

The winners? They remain cloaked in deception. Unfortunately, the Norwegian King seems to be towing the line.

I wasn't crediting him, just stating that it was coherent and well researched.....not a the typical (if there is such a thing) ravings or scribbles of a madman.

If the beginning is all a cut and paste job (sans references) then it would explain the odious length of the document and the coherence whereas the overall structure of the manifesto is muddled and contains everything but the kitchen sink

@Blue Whale:
"It may also explain his morbid logic to use military force against children, to defeat the "multiculturalism" demographic timebomb."

I was under the impression that the island camp was a political summercamp for the Labour Party....is there some further information that the teenagers there were predominantly young immigrants?
As I wrote there seemed to be a disconnect between his stated aims and attacking a youngsters political summercamp, a disconnect that I could not incorporate.

If the kids at the camp were immigrant children then that parallels his perspective.....Anyone have any further information?

" His ideology appears to be a form of reactionary Christian fundamentalism, fuelled by hatred of Islam, Marxism and non-whites."

I think that's NOT entirely correct. IIRC in his manifesto he is critical of socialists, Islam, other immigrants, and also Christianity. He wants Europe to return to the glory of ... wait for it ... Knights Templar. He also writes about the "Austrian School" (of foreign policy? Of Social Systems). The year 2083 is interesting it's the 400th anniversary of the Austrian empire fending off the Ottomans!

His deeds were reprehensible no doubt. However the main reason for his act seems to be a backlash (horrific!) of lax (actually that's NOT correct. Distorted is a better word) immigration policies by his country. And here's a bold prediction (not meant to offend anyone): his views or atleast watered down versions are going to become more mainstream. That is if they haven't already.

Finally I also think it'd be good for Europe moving forward to develop it's own identity that doesn't give a prominent role to Christianity. It is declining anyways!

It's important to remember that economic stagnation in Europe in the past, unlike in the US, has brought social upheaval and political instability. Hope that trend doesn't repeat!

Lets do all we can to support positive ideas and help humanity to move away from violence and towards peace and tolerance. Root out hatred. I recently took part in the National Geography Genographic Project that shows how closely we are all related to each other.

Just browse on, I suggest the word "execute" from about page 700, you'll encounter plenty of deranged and maniacal stuff "explaining" everything.

"All our efforts must be to target and execute the multiculturalists wherever we find them in Phase 1, 2 and 3 of the European civil war.

This will also include a large portion of so called “right wing suicidal Humanists/or individuals supporting the one-world-view (capitalists/industrialists supporting mass Muslim immigration included) but who are not necessarily Marxist sympathisers.

Patriotic militias must create and update execution lists containing the names of every single parliamentarian, journalist, NGO leader/board member and university lecturer/professor etc. who has supported and propagated multiculturalist doctrines."

Muslims he wants to deport, up to 200,000 "traitors" (forgot already why that number)- kill.

...

All those who, having taken couple of minutes to think this over, now try to hang this scarecrow on people whose writings he copy-pasted into his "work", on Geert Wilders, Bachmann, Tea Party, etc are hard at work to prove him right in at least something.

Yes, and not executing someone who, being free from mental disorder, went on to plan and carry out mass "executions" of others, feels so foolish. Maybe humane or maybe not, but definitively foolish.

If I would make an estimate based on the Swedish sister organisation, where I was a member in younger days, you would see a larger than normal portion of immigrant children on the camp (a quite wild guess based on my experience would be roughly 20 %). Social Democracy has traditionally been the party here for immigrants and immigrants also tend to be rather involved.

You are correct in that it was an attack on the Social Democracy, but Scandinavian Social Democracy (maybe except the Danish) has lately been villified by the "not always so"-far right for their open and borders, "massimmigration" and "political correctness" that somehow stiffles freedom of expression (while the truth is that most people simply do not agree with them). Idiotic comments like that from Oscar are regrettably quite common right now (when they thought it was Muslims, they where a lot less forgiving), and somehow using mass murder against people not sharing your view has in their twisted world become a defence of democracy and free speech.
Of course political violence towards social democrats is nothing new, in Sweden both Olof Palme and Anna Lind was murdered. What has changed is the accusations, from being communist fifth colloners to betraying the ethnic Scandinavians.
Of course the hatred is the same...

That if a self professed christian commits unchristian atrocities (that the vast majority of christians reject) we should not mention that he is a self professed christian or deem it christian terrorism.

But if a self professed muslim commits un-islamic atrocities (that the vast majority of muslims reject) its okay to mention that he is a self professed muslim or call it islamic terrorism....